Communication Breakdown
by walkingdisastersharkchild
Summary: Rin had a plan for the year. It involved beating the school record for butterfly and seeing if he could improve on his weight lifting. It didn't involve keeping away potential suitors for Gou, doing Nitori's English homework or denying Haruka access to the Samezuka dorms, no matter how much he begged. RinHaru (mentions of SeiGou)


**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own _Free!_

**Author's Notes: **Part of the "A Shiver of Sharks" series revolving around the Mastuoka siblings and their relationships with the people around them. I meant to put this up alongside "Occupational Hazards" straight away so oops.

* * *

Somewhere, a high pitched squeal resounded, stabbing into his rather comfortable sleep. Grunting, Rin rose his head, reaching around blindly for his phone. Personally, he didn't believe it had already been half an hour since he had set the alarm, but when he blinked blearily at the screen that told him to swipe to put the alarm on snooze, he turned it off and fell back on his bed with a small _thwump_.

Arm over his eyes, Rin counted to ten, slowly and surely. The throbbing behind his eyes had worn down to something barely noticeable, the painkillers finally starting to kick in. He was still tired, however, but Rin couldn't remember a day where he hadn't been tired.

A soft knock at the door had him pull himself up. The floor was still spinning beneath his feet, and Rin gripped the ladder until his knuckles went white. These are some other kind of painkillers, he mused as he managed to walk almost steadily to the door. Pulling it open, Rin raised an eyebrow at Nitori, who was holding two cans of Pocari.

"Where's your key?" Rin said after a moment, holding the door wide enough to let the smaller male in. Well, not that small as he had once been.

Over the break, Nitori had shot up several centimetres and was now quite possibly at eye-level with Rin (not that he could tell, Nitori still kept his head down around him even if they found a common ground). Needless to say, Rin was waiting for his last growth spurt sometime soon. It kind of freaked him out that his junior was going to completely overtake him soon.

"I have it, I just didn't want to wake you."

"It was only half an hour," Rin mumbled, taking the offered can with a thanks when Nitori settled at his desk.

"Rin-sempai, I hate to break it to you, but you are not a 'morning person'."

Rin flicked the pull-tab from his can at Nitori, laughing at the squeak he received in response. Nitori grumbled to himself as he sorted through the piles of paper and books on his desk. Rin rolled his eyes and walked to his own desk, holding up the papers Nitori was looking for. "Stop making my desk messy," he muttered, wincing at Nitori's loud yell of thanks.

"I'll be back soon, I just need to drop this off. And then let's go to training together ...?" Nitori trailed off. He was comfortable around Rin, far more than he had been in the previous school year, but there were times when he felt like he was still toeing the line.

Waving him off, Rin sat at his own desk, pulling one of his own pieces of homework towards him, pushing Nitori's too the side. "Hurry up," he ordered when he noticed Nitori hadn't left.

Giving Rin a mock-salute, Nitori left, the door closing behind him with a small click. Rin slumped in his chair in that instant, leaning back on the legs as he held himself with one hand on the desk.

He didn't feel like going to training.

He had his drive back for swimming (if the last lot of regionals were anything to go by), and he was back to talking with Gou, Haru, Makoto and Nagisa, and had found a new friend in Rei. Rin had started getting into a rhythm that was comfortable, didn't pressure him, let him work towards his own goals.

But, he just found no need to go anymore. He was always tired, and he could place that on the stresses of his last year of high school, but Samezuka did everything in their power to ensure their students were looked after and _successful_, come the end of third year. They encouraged a high work ethic, of course, but wouldn't let seniors drop extracurricular activities. Apparently, he had heard when several classmates complained about it, some international psychologist had held a seminar in Japan that representatives from high level schools attended. And Samezuka had taken every word to heart - if anything to promote themselves when their students became national representatives.

Rin wasn't entirely surprised. He would follow what the school asked as obediently as he could and just coast along like he had been. But this feeling in his body, it was a weight and it was _tiring_. It wasn't something a simple run could fix (as had been his own cure for many ailments over his life). If anything it made it worse.

The school nurse had given him some vitamins and advised him to eat better and sent him on his way, after the last checkup. Not that he had made a fuss out of it. She had just mentioned offhandedly that he looked fatigued to which he had responded in the affirmative. He hadn't really expected much of a response (she never made it back for the beginning of this year, apparently she was found with the biology teacher in the labs).

Rin's train of thought immediately fell into the ditch when he remembered the gossip about the nurse and the biology teacher, and it wasn't until a hand gripped his shoulder and shook him that he came back to reality.

"Rin-sempai! Are you alright?" Nitori was a little too close for comfort, and Rin pushed his face away with one hand.

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"And you don't look sixteen."

Nitori narrowed his eyes at that, which only furthered Rin's point.

"Come on. Coach is going to have our heads if we're late _again_."

"That was your fault last time," Nitori reminded Rin as they grabbed the last of their gear on the way out of their room.

Rin rolled his eyes. It _was_ his fault though. Whilst he made Nitori stop pestering him about it, he hadn't really anticipated falling over - and not getting back up. It wasn't until Nitori had threatened to tell Gou that he was sick that he went to the office himself.

Gou couldn't know that Rin wasn't feeling well. They had finally started talking again, and he didn't want to worry her. She already pestered him several times a day with messages about how he was going. No, pestered wasn't the right word. Gou didn't pester him. Nagisa and Makoto did when they wanted him to come to that movie night at Haru's over the break. It was never pestering when it came from Gou.

The dead weight didn't leave his legs until he was in his suit, stretching on the sidelines as the members who had gathered earlier already went through their warm-up swim. Maybe it was because of his nap, he wondered, shaking out the feeling. Just blood sitting for too long.

"Maybe," he mumbled aloud.

At Nitori's enquiring glance, Rin waved him off. It was his problem, and he'd deal with it. Moving over to where their coach was, Rin felt like hiding his eyes from the thousand watt grin.

"Matsuoka, glad you could join us on time."

How Mikoshiba had managed to get a job here was beyond Rin. He had expected Mikoshiba to move to Tokyo, where most of the graduates had gone. From what his sister, of all people, had told him, was that Mikoshiba was gaining more credentials whilst doing part time study. Whatever that meant. Rin had a lot of respect for the guy, but he had to wonder if Mikoshiba was holding himself back.

"Glad to see Samezuka hasn't kicked you out yet."

Mikoshiba merely through his head back and laughed, smacking Rin hard on the shoulder. "Get in the pool, Matsuoka. You can bitch about everything later."

Rin flipped Mikoshiba off and stood on the diving block, shifting himself for the best angle. Apparently he was still five degrees off, as Rei liked to remind him constantly (Nagisa of course picking up on this and teasing him relentlessly). He was getting better but it still made him grit his teeth.

Snapping his goggles, he lowered himself. Just as Mikoshiba was about to give the call for the start, Rin felt nauseous, his tongue heavy in his mouth. Someone was yelling the background as his vision darkened And the world shifted beneath his feet.

Rin wasn't quite sure what had happened but he was on his side when he came too but he managed to spot the worried faces around him. Trying to push himself up, several hands pushed him back down, and he vaguely heard Mikoshiba bark for someone to grab his jacket from the locker room. At least I'm still by the pool, Rin thought, mildly amused.

"Matsuoka-san, how is your head?" The school doctor, a rather timid old man surrounded by the Samezuka's swim team, managed to break through the chatter, effectively silencing said team.

"I'm fine." The words were slow, even to his own ears. Now he was concerned.

At the doctor's orders, Rin was lifted to a seated position, hands holding him in place as he swayed a little. He was going to be sick. A bucket was placed in front of him without him even mentioning it, and what little he had of lunch was emptied into it.

But, he felt better. Light-headed, but better.

"Matsuoka-san, I think it would be best if you came to the office for a lie down."

Rin wanted to protest, but he thought better of it, when he was hit by the worried looks of Nitori and Mikoshiba. No doubt both of them would go barking to his sister about what happened today. He didn't want that in the slightest. But the doctor wasn't giving him any room to budge and he gave a small nod.

"Can I at least get my stuff from the lockers?"

Nitori offered to escort him in, thankfully, and an immediate rush of whispers followed in his wake, Mikoshiba's voice booming over them to stop acting like a bunch of girls and get back in the pool. Rin stumbled a little but took Nitori's offered arm without a complaint. The floor was swirling under his feet. He wasn't going to last long.

At the locker left for him, Rin pulled his jacket on, pausing when he realised his suit wasn't wet. "Didn't I managed to get in the pool?"

"Coach grabbed hold of you the moment you tipped over. I think he was going to scold you for leaving the block before the call but you didn't respond and then ..." Nitori looked almost fearful.

"How long was I out for?"

"A good ten minutes or so. Someone kept count of it."

Rin leaned against the lockers as he pulled his trackpants up. The last time he had fallen he had been concious at least. He wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Suddenly, his phone started beeping, filling the quiet room. Both Rin and Nitori looked up at the same time. Rin didn't often receive calls, messages more than anything. Holding himself up - as he was sure there wasn't supposed to be black at the edge of his vision - he looked at the ID, surprised to see Makoto's name across the front.

"Makoto, what do yo-"

_"Rin."_

Rin paused, the familiar voice taking his full attention. It hadn't been so long since he had heard Haru's voice, but it had the same effect everytime. "Haru."

_"You need to come to Iwatobi."_

There was something going on in the background on Haru's line, like someone was crying. It was loud, probably louder than it should have been. "Are you crying?" Laughter left Rin as he imagined Haru crying. He couldn't. He wasn't quite sure if Haru could even cry.

_"Not me. _Gou_."_

Nitori was quite sure he had never seen Rin as distressed as he was, not even comparing to the time at regionals.

* * *

**A/N: **I forgot to mention. So, this is the tie-in with OccHaz, obviously. So the story will show what was happening with Gou in OccHaz whilst what was happening with Rin in CommBr. Also, you know, how Gou interacts with Rin and how Rin interacts with Gou and then they have their own individual romances on the side etc. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

Also Nitori and Rin are totally cool here they are the best dorm buddies.

I'm going to rewrite the first chap of OccHaz anyway. Make it a little longer. And Rin's problem? It's a little subtler than Gou's.

**Please review.**


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